Rupert Murdoch joins Twitter

The News Corporation founder and CEO, who last year faced allegations that some of his newspapers had been involved in phone hacking, posted his first tweet on the social networking platform yesterday (December 31).

He has already amassed over 16,000 followers and is currently following two users - Zynga co-founder Mark Pincus and Twitter executive chairman Jack Dorsey.

Murdoch used his first tweet to praise The Rational Optimist, a book on evolution.

The media mogul also lauded George Clooney's upcoming movie The Descendants, which is backed by Murdoch's Fox Searchlight Pictures. He tweeted: "Saw Fox film Descendants. Thank God, one to be proud of. Star Geo Clooney deserves Oscar, maybe film too (sic)."